DACULI AND BRA 183 some of these words should be read differently, and "abitabi" needs some recasting. I will not attempt to interpret but should infer that Bra had its troubles. They do not seem to have ex- tended to Daculi. Pareto's fine map of I455 19 (Fig. 21) applies the following more extended and significant legend to Daculi: "Item est altera insulla nomine Bra in qua femine que in insulla ipsa habitant non pari- untur sed quando est eorum tempus pariendi feruntur foras in- sulla et ibi pariuntur secundum tempus." From this we may gather that the outer island Daculi was believed to afford especial aid in childbearing to women carried thither after being baffled on the inner island Bra, and we see readily the appositeness of the name "cradle" applied to the former. Beccario's map of H35 20 (Fig. 20), though without the legend, had already adopted in "Insulla da Culli" almost exactly the form of the name which we have divined, with apparently that meaning. St. Kilda seems to me the most plausible original for Daculi that has been suggested. It is true that Barra is actually south of the parallel of latitude of that most lonely western sentinel of the Hebrides, and there is no obvious link of relation between them. Also the rock islet of North Barra is about as far above it, equally unconnected and not likely ever to have maintained much population. But so simple a misunderstanding on the part of the old cartographers would be no more than what happened to them all the time, and exact identity of latitude is unimportant. There is, in fact, no land on the site given Daculi in any of these old maps; and Bra, as noted, is absurdly out of place for Barra. How the tradition grew up we do not know. Perhaps it was some tale picked up by coasting Italian traders, partly misunderstood and passed on by them to the map-makers at home. St. Kilda, lost in the mists and mystery of the Atlantic, of holy name and 18 Kretschmer, atlas, PI. 5. 20 Gustavo Uzielli: Mappamondi, carte nautiche e portolani del medioevo e dei secoli delle grand! scoperte marittime construiti da italiaiii o trovati nelle biblioteche d'ltalia, Part II (pp. 280-390) of "Studi Bibliografici e Biografici sulla Storia della Geografia in Italia," published on the occasion of the Second International Geo- graphical Congress, Paris, 1875, by the Societa. Geografica Italiana, Rome, 1875; reference on PI. 8 (the second edition, Rome, 1882, does not contain the plates).
